**Author’s Note** Furrther points of interest have been added at the bottom of the post. This unique real estate story continues to unfold!
Vancouver’s real estate market made headlines again this week, when this shack perched on a mountain view 33 x 122 foot lot in the highly coveted Point Grey neighbourhood came to market for $2.4 million.
Pictures of the property spread like wildfire on social media alongside hashtags like #ridiculous.
Can we say teardown?
Photos courtesy of the Huffington Post
“The property’s appeal is its address, not the building, as the upscale neighbourhood is one of the hottest in the city. The average selling price for a single-family home on the city’s west side is above $2.5 million, according to recent data from the mayor’s office — not to mention one mega-mansion that fetched $51 million last year.” – Huffington Post
The craziest part? Listing agent Amanda Crosby of RE/MAX said there’s been plenty of interest in the property and that it will very likely sell for over its asking price.
By and large, the person who buys this property will be paying for the terra firma, where they’ll erect their own mega mansion, and sell it off for a “#ridiculous” profit!
Recently, a Vancouver city councilor protested the teardown of a $7 million mansion in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, stating that it was a “perfectly good home”, less than 20 years old, and tearing it down would go against the city’s efforts to be greener. We’re guessing he wouldn’t make the same kind of stink over the teardown of this 86-year-old shack!!
Is the Vancouver market cray cray? Check out
this mansion in the same Point Grey neighbourhood that sold for $51 million!
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ADDITION – JUNE 6th, 2016
The Globe and Mail has done some enlightening follow-up reporting on this unlikely Vancouver property that caught the attention of media outlets across the country in February. In a follow-up piece published on June 3rd, the Globe’s Brent Jeng reports on the unfolding story, bringing us an important perspective that was absent from the initial sensational media coverage months ago. The story of the “$2.4 million teardown” spread like wildfire when the property came to market four months ago, as it was the most jarring proof thus far of Vancouver’s out-of-control real estate market. In our haste to criticize – we include ourselves in that lot – an entire side of the story was glossed over if not outright omitted: the experience of seller Ken Bryant and his family.
Now we gain a bit of a different perspective. During a three-hour interview, Mr. Bryant talked about buying the home at the bargain price of $141,000 back in 1983, and recalled that his real estate agent tried to steer him away from the purchase, as even in 1983 the structure was considered a ‘tear down’. But the Bryants saw something special in the property, and it became a happy family home for two decades. Mr. Bryant executed few repairs over the years – the structure remains largely unchanged since they took possession – but it was meticulously upkept and cared for. In 1983 it was the only property they could afford in the desirable Point Grey neighbourhood, but now this lucky couple (and their two sons) are reaping a lottery-like windfall after selling in 2016. The sale highlights how the baby boomers were able to buy homes on modest incomes in the 70s and 80s, and how immensely they are benefiting from the region’s hot real-estate market today; the generational wealth accumulated through home ownership has been a major reason the B.C. Liberal government has given for its reluctance to intervene to cool down the market.
“My point is that out of the house has come these fantastic kids,” Mr. Bryant said. “We weren’t worried about getting the gutters cleaned or getting the roof done. But my sons are immensely successful.” Globe As the country rushed to mock Ken’s home, and sensationalize it’s sale to promote various agendas, we forgot the human element present in this story. Mr. Bryant and his wife were not “money-hungry” or being purposefully inflammatory when they set their asking price – they were merely engaging in a market that was already off the rails. Furthermore, while the media may have dubbed it “worthless”, a “crack shack”, and “trailer trash”, this aging structure (with a little tender love and care) helped Mr. and Mrs. Bryant build a happy home and raise their two sons.
The Bryants were volunteers in the U.S. Peace Corps in the late 1960s. Before arriving in Vancouver, they had lived in rural India and Samoa, and then spartan campus quarters at the University of California at Berkeley. The Bryants gained perspective on living modestly and do not view houses and cars as show pieces. (Ms. Bryant drives a 1991 Toyota Corolla. Mr. Bryant’s old truck went kaput a couple of years ago. He has been a regular user of bus route 99 to and from UBC, and he now pays for Car2Go when he needs a vehicle.) Until their recent retirement, both Mr. Bryant and his wife spent their Vancouver years working at UBC, and paid off their mortgage years ago.“I have said goodbye to the house,” he said. “There are many things in our life that are important to us. What our house looks like is not one of them. We have pride in our kids and how they do, and our grandkids.” Globe
As for the details of the transaction itself, land title records updated in May disclose the buyers as Gurinder and Urvashi Arora, who describe their jobs as “business owners.” In the earlier sales contract, the buyer is identified as Paul Minhas of Vic Development Ltd. (Mr. Minhas is also a real estate agent.) Mr. Bryant said the property appears to have been flipped to the Aroras. The final buyers declared the value of their purchase at $2.48-million – the same price the Bryants received. Read more about shadow flipping here.
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~ Written by Steven Fudge, the purveyor of canadianrealestatehousingandhome.ca and proprietor of urbaneer.com, a division of Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage.
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